I have created an add-in that contains some rectangle drawing tools for the sketch environment inside Inventor. Here is a video demo of Qube-It Tools for Inventor-R1:
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INVENTOR PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS
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Author:
QUBE-IT DESIGN, INC
Brian Hall
7/4/2010
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DESCRIPTION
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R1
This tool set is three distinct rectangle drawing tools that are used inside
the sketch environment for part files, assembly files, and drawing files. They are a
Center Point Rectangle, a Horizontal Mid-Point Rectangle, and a Vertical Mid-Point
Rectangle. The Horizontal and Vertical mid-point rectangles create a rectangle from
the mid-points of one of the horizontal or vertical lines of the rectangle. The
Center Point Rectangle creates a rectangle about the origin of where the user picks.
These tools are located on the sketch tab in the ribbon interface as a separate panel
called "Rectangles".
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R2(Current)
This tool set has four distinct rectangle drawing tools that are used inside the sketch
environment for part files, assembly files, and drawing files. They are located on a
separate ribbon panel called "Rectangles" on the "Sketch" ribbon tab. They are as follows:
Center Point Rectangle (default displayed button):
This rectangle tool draws a rectangle about the origin of where the user picks. It
constrains the rectangle by adding a vertical and horizontal alignment constraint to
one of the vertical and horizontal lines respectively as well as a coincident constraint
to the geometry that the user selects. If no geometry is selected, then only the vertical
and horizontal alignment constraints will be used.
Diagonal Center Point Rectangle:
This rectangle tool draws a rectangle about the origin of where the user picks and adds
a diagonal line that goes from one corner to the opposite corner with a sketch point constrained
to the mid-point of the diagonal line. By virtue of the diagonal line, the rectangle relationship
to the origin is maintained, but if the user selects existing geometry then a coincident
constraint is added to the origin sketch point and selected geometry.
Horizontal Mid-Point Rectangle:
This rectangle tool draws a rectangle that eminates from the mid-point of one of the
horizontal lines of the rectangle. A sketch point is then added and constrained to
that line's mid-point. If the user selects existing geometry, then the sketch point
is constrained to the existing geometry accordingly.
Vertical Mid-Point Rectangle:
This rectangle tool draws a rectangle that eminates from the mid-point of one of the
vertical lines of the rectangle. A sketch point is then added and constrained to
that line's mid-point. If the user selects existing geometry, then the sketch point
is constrained to the existing geometry accordingly.
SOURCE CODE
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C# source code will be provided with this add-in as a Visual Studio 2010 Solution when the
July/August issue of "The Creative Inventor" online magazine has been issued. To subscribe
to "The Creative Inventor" online magazine, please go to
http://www.teknigroup.com/ and
click on the magazine icon button in the lower left corner.
SUPPORTED VERSIONS
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This add-in supports Inventor 2010 forward and does not support the classic
interface.
INSTALLATION
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An installer wizard ("Qube-It Tools.msi") has been provided. Since this add-in was
built using .NET 3.5 framework, you will need that framework to run the add-in. The
installer will automatically detect this and install it if you don't have it. Follow
the prompts for quick installation. You can change the location of the install folder
if you like.
You may uninstall the add-in through your system's control panel. You may also simply
uncheck the "Load on Startup" box if you're only looking to unload it without uninstalling it.
KNOWN ISSUES
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This add-in does not support the classic interface by design.
The default rectangle button shown on the Rectangles tab is the Center point Rectangle.
When the user selects one of the other rectangle tools, they will remain displayed
and "pressed" during the life of the tool, but when the user exits the tool or starts another
tool, the displayed button will go back to being the Center Point Rectangle tool again.
This is intentional because even if the other tools are displayed (i.e. horizontal or
vertical mid-point rectangle tools) and the user clicks that displayed button, the center point rectangle tool
will be what gets activated (unless the user selects the drop down first).
There is no support for the heads up display to be utilized with these tools. It is not
supported through the API yet.
BUG FIXES
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R2 fixes:
1) Added support for the construction line toggle.
2) Added the Diagonal Center Point Rectangle tool to provide for a more robust
rectangle so that there are no unexpected results when the corners are filleted
or chamfered.
3) Changed the behavior of the tool so that it acts in a manner that is consistent with
the behavior of the current Inventor rectangle tools where the command stays
active until the user escapes out of the command or starts a new command.
RELEASE HISTORY
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R1 7/4/2010
R2 (current release) 7/11/2010
FEEDBACK
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Post here at MCADForums.com
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QUBE-IT DESIGN PROVIDES THIS PROGRAM "AS IS" AND WITH ALL FAULTS.
QUBE-IT DESIGN SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE. QUBE-IT DESIGN, INC.
DOES NOT WARRANT THAT THE OPERATION OF THE PROGRAM WILL BE
UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE.
The source code is 1.4 MB in a compressed zip file so it's too large to upload here, but I would be happy to provide it if you PM me your e-mail address. I'm looking into another way to post it and will relay that info here when it becomes available.
Of course, feedback is always welcome.
I have been made aware of a problem installing this add-in on windows XP. I'm in the process of investigating the issue and providing an installer for XP. In the interim, you may manually register (and unregister) the add-in by use of a batch file. I will make a new post specific with those instructions.
I have also found that this install package doesn't seem to work with Inventor 2010. It appears to be related to a reference to the Inventor 2011 Interop assembly that I made in my code. Of course, if you have Inventor 2010, you won't have this assembly on your machine, so I changed my reference to the 2010 Interop assembly and have rebuilt my original installer. I have replaced the installer attachment with the new version. Post back with any problems.
As requested below, I have built an installer that doesn't force the user to install .NET 4.0. I have added this installer as an option for users to download. Both installers install the same exact tools for Inventor, it's just that the installer itself was built within a certain .NET framework. The first installer download was built inside the .NET 4.0 framework where the second installer was built inside the .NET 3.5 framework. If the user doesn't have the prescribed framework already installed on their machine, then the framework will automatically be installed.
Below is a new version of these tools (I know, only been out a week and already a new release
). I have added an additional center point rectangle button which uses a different technique for constraining as well as a couple of fixes/enhancements. Please view the video and Read Me (above) for further explanation.
You will first have to uninstall the R1 version for this version to install correctly (Thanks Matthias!)
Thank you to all who were patient with the installer issues above and who have provided feedback. It appears, with your feedback, that everything has been resolved. I'll let you be the judge, though.
I will be releasing the source code after the July/August issue of "The Creative Inventor" magazine has been issued. Be on the look out at
. As always, feel free to post here with any feedback.